Fwd: A Parent's and Teacher's response to test time

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

  From: Horace B Lucido <hbl04@csufresno.edu>

  Date: Sat Apr 12, 2008 3:49:01 PM US/Pacific

   Hello all,

  As the April testing window is upon many students and teachers, I thought
  these two recent commentaries were appropriate. One from a parent and the
  impact these high stakes tests are having on her and her children, and the
  second from a teacher who has decided he can no longer cooperate with the BIG
  test. Go to www.CalCARE.org for some possible action steps.

  Rog

  Love of learning lost as students, schools focus on passing tests

  Yep, I was all for more tests and more sanctions on schools that didn't
  measure up. How could they hurt? That's what I thought until, as a parent, I
  was exposed first-hand to the disturbing transformation in school instruction
  caused by the federal education mandate.

  by Marilou Johanek

  THE season of No. 2 pencils, churning stomachs, headaches, extreme nail
  biting, sweaty palms, dazed expressions, and nonstop testing of America's
  public school children has arrived - along with spring. But the glorious
  sunshine and budding Mother Nature outside are just annoying distractions to
  the all-important testing going on inside school buildings.

  Before I had kids in the system, I concurred with other taxpayers who
  supported the increased testing and accountability measurements mandated by
  the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Local districts should be held
  accountable for the teaching and learning that goes on in schools.

  The point seemed indisputable. Too many slacker facilities were turning out
  slacker students. Lord knows how many illiterate alums have passed through
  public school doors on their way to dead-end futures. It made sense to
  threaten educators with punitive measures for failing to produce quantifiable
  evidence of classroom progress.

  Yep, I was all for more tests and more sanctions on schools that didn't
  measure up. How could they hurt? That's what I thought until, as a parent, I
  was exposed first-hand to the disturbing transformation in school instruction
  caused by the federal education mandate.

  Kids aren't learning how to think and ask questions anymore. They're learning
  how to pass standardized tests. Teaching is too often narrowed to the test,
  which becomes the curriculum. And whatever doesn't directly impact on the
  test is vulnerable to district-wide program cuts.

  The benefits of a broad education are being lost. What should henceforth be
  known as No Child Left Untested has worsened,not improved, U.S. schools by
  its shortsighted absurdity. It is a testing scheme masquerading as school
  reform that compromises genuine learning.

  At some level everybody intimately involved in a child's education knows that
  and tries to cope with it. Some do it better than others but all are
  operating under no-win circumstances.

  Truth is, you don't really understand what "teaching to the test" means until
  your elementary school student brings home bulky practice-test packets night
  after night after spending day after day in school practicing for tests. Some
  days, students separate into smaller, intervention groups to pinpoint
  weaknesses identified in trial tests.

  These are taken regularly in school until students get them right. In the
  weeks leading up to the crucial spring tests, it's all about drilling kids to
  prepare for the hours-long exam marathon on which so much depends. My third
  grader drills until her fingers ache from filling in bubbles on computerized
  test sheets.

  But the pressure to perform she's under is nothing compared to what her
  teachers and school administrators are experiencing as daffodils bloom, birds
  chirp, and April breezes sweeten the air. No seasonal delights divert the
  attention of test-obsessed teachers, whose continuing employment hinges on
  how well their charges do on T-Day.

  Administrators maintain an outward calm but they, too, operate under a
  virtual sledge hammer. Penalties for not producing acceptable test scores
  include loss of funding. With public schools strapped for money, even after
  staff and curriculum reductions, losing even more financing could be
  disastrous.

  So the strain to preserve funds and jobs tied directly to classroom results
  is ever-present in elementary through secondary education.
  Kids-as-testing-machines are expected, from early on, to keep pace with the
  program, grasp an impossible list of required standards, and hurry along in
  their learning.

  Students who don't walk in lockstep are out of luck. Schools don't have the
  time or resources to spend on kids who, God forbid, learn or develop
  differently from their peers. They throw a wrench into the whole approach
  that judges all students the same. Besides, they could lower test scores for
  the classroom or school at large.

  Adding to the NCLB madness is the packed curriculum teachers must run through
  in a year while maintaining their crazy testing schedule. They can't wait for
  their students to actually master any concept or develop a deeper
  understanding of what's been learned by applying it to different situations.

  And they have little leeway to explore alternate teaching methods that
  emphasize innovation, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
  Instruction for some good teachers has become more of a stressful,
  standards-based chore than fun.

  Certainly as a parent, I want high standards and accountability from teachers
  and administrators. But what I see under No Child Left Behind is a system
  that revolves around tests to the detriment of a comprehensive education.

  Worse, the love of learning is not being cultivated into a lifelong passion.
  What matters most is the test, the score, and how apprehensive grade-school
  kids, nervously chewing their No. 2 pencils on a splendid spring day, measure
  up to "education reform."

  Contact her at: mjohanek@theblade.com

  — Marilou Johanek

  Toledo Blade

  2008-04-11

  http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080411/COLUMNIST13/804110318/-1/NEWS18

  Before the Big Test

  by Carl Chew

  I teach 6th grade science at Eckstein Middle School in Seattle. I have let my
  administration know that I will no longer give the WASL to my students. I
  have done this because of the personal moral and ethical conviction that the
  WASL is harmful to students, teachers, schools, and families. I will not
  delve further into my reasons because so many others have already done that
  clearly and thoroughly for me. I will keep you posted as to what happens.

  Before the Big Test

  The Friday before the week of the Big Test my school district sends a flyer
  home with each child. The message: eat right, get plenty of sleep, and do
  your best.

  The Big Test is designed to be definitive. It signals the students, teachers,
  schools, parents, districts, states, and the federal government how everyone
  is doing. To be so definitive it follows that the Big Test is perfectly
  conceived, administered fairly, and that the students have eaten right, had
  plenty of sleep, and done their best.

  Notice that the flyer did not say, the Big Test has been shown to accurately
  assess children whether or not they eat right, get enough sleep, or do their
  best. In fact, the message clearly is, children who do not eat right, who do
  not get enough sleep, and who do not try their hardest may not do as well.

  Students who pass the Big Test are rightly proud of themselves, and become
  more confident. They know how important and definitive the Big Test is.

  If enough students pass, the teachers, school, parents, district, state, and
  federal government don't have too many bones to pick. Everyone gets a passing
  grade. Everyone feels just like the upbeat students--proud and confident.
  I've talked with some teachers and parents who even feel that they are a
  little bit better than students, teachers, and families at another school
  that didn't fare so well on the Big Test, though in reality maybe their kids
  were just able to eat right, get more sleep, and try harder.

  What about the students who do not pass? The test is just as definitive for
  them, maybe more so. Are they going to feel proud? Become more confident?
  Imagine what they have to look forward to--parents and bureaucrats, some of
  them angry, all wondering what went wrong, who to blame, how to make it
  right. It's a lot weight to carry around, especially if it was because you
  didn't or couldn't eat right, get enough sleep, or try your hardest.

  They don't call the Big Test "high stakes testing" for nothing. When not
  enough students pass, there are consequences, lots of them, more than enough
  to go around.

  It's teachers who feel the brunt of just about everyone's pain. How would you
  feel if your school lost money because your students didn't do well enough on
  the Big Test? How would you feel about being sent out of your classroom for
  retraining? How would you respond when a parent angrily accuses you of being
  the reason their child didn't pass? And, how will you survive when our
  federal No Child Left Behind law mandates that other schools take your
  students if they want to leave, or replaces you, or gives your school to a
  private company to run? It might feel like you are just about everyone's
  whipping boy.

  I don't know if it ever was that principals and teachers felt a special bond.
  It seems like that would be good for education. It doesn't feel that way now
  though. Principals of failing schools are under the gun to produce big
  results. They are cajoled and threatened by their districts, made to balance
  budgets for their schools with impossibly meager funding, and worked to their
  bony fingers. It's clear that principals who are threatened and cajoled will
  out of survival threaten and cajole those who they control. They might try to
  cook the books, or fake the scores--you've read the headlines. You can only
  feel sorry for them. They are between a rock, their problem schools, and a
  hard place, the district and the government. The pressure and frustration can
  easily overwhelm a principal, unless they have a good therapist.

  Parents of children who have failed the Big Test have few options. They can
  feel guilty-- are they just bad parents? They can be scared--is there
  something wrong with their children? They can get angry--it's the teacher's
  fault! What about becoming frustrated--is there anything that can actually be
  done to correct the situation? The Big Test is so definitive that it's
  difficult for a parent to imagine their child's "failure" might simply have
  been due to poor eating, not enough sleep, or lack of trying.

  I know by now you see the flaw I am aiming at--if all it takes for a child to
  mess up on the Big Test is their eating habits, sleep schedule, or will to
  give it their all, the Big Test may not be as definitive as advertised.

  In fact, I think if we look closely we may discover that the Big Test fosters
  other, serious social consequences.

  For instance, if a group of children has a healthier diet than another group
  of children, and because of that do better on the Big Test, and their
  community begins to think they are somehow better than other communities that
  didn't fare so well, doesn't that start to feel like prejudice?

  If one group of children can't get to bed at a reasonable hour because they
  are taking care of their brothers and sisters while their parent works a
  second job, and because they are tired they don't do as well on the Big Test,
  and because of doing poorly they loose confidence in themselves, doesn't
  failing the Big Test do them a disservice which could result in a lifetime of
  struggle?

  If we lose a generation of perfectly good students, teachers, and principals
  because the stress of educating under the gun of the Big Test has become too
  overwhelming and negative, aren't we taking some pretty big steps backwards?

  To read this essay properly you also need to eat right, get plenty of sleep,
  and above all else, try your hardest. How many of us adults can say we do
  that? I frankly have a struggle sleeping before a Big Test, and when I wake
  up I am usually not inclined to eat a very good breakfast, and if I think the
  test is unfair my negative attitude will definitely affect the outcome. I
  have a difficult time understanding how we can hold children to a standard
  higher than we are willing or able to hold ourselves to.

  And of course, matters can be more complex than they appear. Here are a few
  more tips our school flyer might alert students and parents to:

  · Make sure you speak the same language or dialect that the test is written
  in.

  · Make sure you have no diagnosed or undiagnosed physical or mental problems.

  · Make sure your parents are speaking to each other, not abusive, not
  alcoholics or drug addicted, and not getting a divorce.

  · Make sure you don't have a cold or the flu.

  · Make sure no one bullies you on the playground.

  · Make sure your parents, siblings, peers, and teacher do all they can to
  heighten your sense of self esteem and self worth.

  · Make sure your parent or school cafeteria knows that a good breakfast
  includes all the food groups, not just a highly sugared cereal.

  · Make sure you have enough role models who have achieved success through
  education.

  · Make sure that other students won't be disruptive during the Big Test.

  · Make sure the test assesses things your parents and community find
  culturally valuable and relevant.

  · Make sure your teacher doesn't belittle or demean the test.

  · Make sure the test readers and scorers eat right, get plenty of sleep, try
  their hardest, are being treated well by their employers, and value students
  with poor handwriting skills, creative grammatical syntax, or unusual ideas.

  · Make sure reporting errors aren't made by the testing companies or their
  computers.

  I bet you can think of a few more tips too.

  I am a teacher who loves working with children. I love helping them learn,
  comforting them, buying them supplies when they have none, playing with them
  when there' time, and making school a safe place where they feel valued. But,
  I refuse to be complicit in supporting the Big Test and the ill wind it
  spawns in the lives of our students, schools, and communities.

  — Carl Chew

  teacher

  2008-04-12

  Rog ( Horace ) Lucido, Physics Instructor, Ret.

  Program Evaluator

  Adjunct Faculty, Fresno Pacific University

  Educational Consultant

  Educators and Parents Against Testing Abuse ( EPATA )

  Assessment Reform Network Central Valley Coordinator

  Phone: 559-277-1312

  Cell: 559-355-4215

  email: lucid4@cvip.net

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